Whatever happened to ... Dennis Harrison
Eagles career: A Dick Vermeil pick, he was taken in the fourth round of the 1978 draft and spent seven seasons here, starting six of them at left defensive end. That front line - Harrison, Charles Johnson, Carl Hairston and Ken Clarke - stayed together for the ride to the top and then the chaotic trip down during the dreadful strike-shortened '82 season that would turn out to be Vermeil's last. Statistically, it was Harrison's best: 66 tackles, 10 1/2 sacks in the first year the NFL kept that stat, and the Eagles' only representative in the Pro Bowl. Harrison, nicknamed "Bigfoot," was not re-signed after the 1984 season, joining Mike Quick, Jerry Robinson and Wilbert Montgomery out the door during owner Norman Braman's roster purge.
Eagles memory: "How can the Super Bowl not be one?" he asked during a phone conversation from his office at Brentwood Middle School, located in a suburb of Nashville, Tenn. "Beating Dallas [for the NFC championship] was another one. And then the year I made the Pro Bowl."
Where he is now: A wellness and physical education teacher at Brentwood, he also coaches football, wrestling, girls basketball and track. This season he has 50 players on his eighth-grade team, 25 on JV. So has he adopted anything he learned on the pro level? "I had 'Swamp' [Marion Campbell] and Chuck Clausen as position coaches and they were always paying attention to detail and fundamentals," Harrison said. "I've done that with my guys."
Managing that many kids? A breeze for Harrison, who has 12 children. "Seven girls, five boys, one wife," he said, drawing a chuckle from the other end. They managed a reunion on the Fourth of July. "It was fantastic," Harrison said. Most have wound up in athletics, including his son David, drafted in the first round by the NBA's Pacers in 2004. A 7-foot center, his four seasons in Indiana included participation in the November 2004 brawl at The Palace at Auburn Hills that netted him a year's probation. The Timberwolves were expected to sign him yesterday to a 1-year, nonguaranteed contract.
Perspective on today's game: "People are bigger," said Harrison, whose playing weight was 280. "I can remember [we had a player named] Frank Giddens who was 300 pounds and coach was making him lose weight."
